Patient Stories

I am a 41-year- old woman. I was diagnosed with a massive pulmonary embolism (PE) and a large deep vein thrombosis (DVT), respectively, in my lung and left calf, in March of 2014. I had no idea what was going on. I was making my kids a snack and got so dizzy that it literally…

In 1983, I began experiencing pain in my side, shortness of breath and coughing up blood. At the ER, I was diagnosed with pleurisy, which is inflammation of the tissues that line the lungs and chest cavity. I was only 17 years old. Two weeks later, I began having pain in my left groin and…

My son Luca is 16 years old and has a rare clotting disorder called protein C deficiency. Doctors initially thought it was a bleeding disorder, but it turned out to be a clotting problem. He forms micro-clots that use up the clotting factors, which causes internal bleeding.  It started just before Luca turned two years…

I am a 39-year-old Native American. I have had 23 pulmonary emboli (PE) and 31 incidents of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) starting at age 22, caused by the factor V Leiden mutation. I also have congenital protein C and S deficiencies.   Nurses say I’m a miracle and call me a medical anomaly. Doctors ask…

I was diagnosed with a massive bilateral pulmonary embolism (PE) on November 5, 2021, three weeks after my 23rd birthday. Everything started as a pain in my calf. The funny thing is that the pain began mid-workout, making me believe it was a pulled muscle.   After a few days, the pain started to travel upwards…

Everything felt normal, but I was left gasping after walking up a hill carrying a bucket of water. Something was wrong. I was subtly winded after golfing and climbing stairs, but I paid no attention. I thought it could be allergies. The next day, walking up that same hill with the bucket, I was out…

I was first diagnosed with pulmonary emboli (PE), or blood clots in my lungs, on October 23, 2017. Doctors told me it was a miracle that I did not go into cardiac arrest and die because the clots in both lungs were the size of baseballs. I was rushed into emergency surgery to remove the…

After giving birth to my daughter by emergency c-section due to preeclampsia, I started to feel very ill. My right leg was throbbing and my chest hurt. I followed up with the doctor on this, and a quick scan showed blood clots in my leg (deep vein thrombosis) and my chest (pulmonary embolism). I was…

In 2020, my daughter, Meredith (Mer for short), complained that she was having difficulty breathing. My wife and I dismissed it as perhaps a sinus condition or allergies. The next morning, Mer called us from school telling us she had passed out. She was rushed to the hospital where the physicians asked if she was…

My name is Chelsey. I am 31 and have no prior health issues. On October 26, 2022, I went downstairs to my basement and felt a heaviness in my chest. I reached the bottom step and I felt like I had just run a marathon. I tried to sit down, but the next thing I…